On apprend aussi dans l’article de la Gazette que Montréal limiterait la hauteur à 8 étages dans le secteur
Texte intégral
Activists cheer as Quebec, Montreal set to protect Chinatown heritage
Montreal city council will adopt new zoning limiting building heights and densities in the historic district
Marian Scott
Montreal Gazette
Publishing date: Jan 23, 2022 • 7 hours ago • 4 minute read
May Chiu, left, and Murielle Chan of Progressive Chinese of Quebec and Chinatown resident and preservation activist Jean-Philippe Riopel celebrate news that parts of Chinatown, including this section of de La Gauchetière St., will be classified as a heritage site. PHOTO BY JOHN MAHONEY /Montreal Gazette
Community organizations and residents in Chinatown are celebrating news the Quebec government and city of Montreal intend to protect the historic neighbourhood.
“It’s a wonderful, wonderful way to start the Year of the Tiger,” May Ciu, a member of the Progressive Chinese of Quebec, said Sunday.
Quebec Culture Minister Nathalie Roy has called an 11 a.m. news conference Monday to announce provincial protection for the heritage district, threatened by real-estate development.
Meanwhile, city council will amend Montreal’s urban plan to preserve the neighbourhood’s built heritage, according to the agenda for its monthly meeting on Monday.
At a special meeting Friday, the city’s executive committee approved changes to the urban plan, including new limits on building heights and densities in the district. Public consultations will be held on the zoning changes.
Council will also vote on an interim resolution preventing any new developments that do not respect the revised zoning.
“I am extremely happy, although obviously we did not get everything we wanted,” said Jean-Philippe Riopel, a tenant on de la Gauchetière St. who sounded the alarm last year after his building and several others on the block were acquired by developers Brandon Shiller and Jeremy Kornbluth, who have made headlines for the “renoviction” of tenants across the city.
Roy will classify the block bounded by de la Gauchetière, St-Urbain, Côté Sts. and Viger Ave. as a Quebec heritage site and designate it as the “institutional hub” of Chinatown, Radio-Canada reported Saturday.
Wing’s Noodle Factory at the corner of de La Gauchetière St. and Côté St. in Montreal’s Chinatown is among the buildings that will receive heritage protection. PHOTO BY JOHN MAHONEY /Montreal Gazette
The former British and Canadian School at 1009 Côté St., at the corner of de la Gauchetière St., will also be classified, it said. Now the Wing’s noodle factory, the four-storey stone building designed by James O’Donnell, the architect of Notre-Dame Basilica, is Montreal’s oldest purpose-built school.
The former Davis tobacco factory at at 987-991 Côté St. will also be designated a provincial heritage site, the report said. Built in 1884, it incorporates exterior walls of the 1848 former Free Presbyterian Church.
The block also includes stone houses dating from the mid-19th century, when the area was still being developed into an urban neighbourhood.
Meanwhile, the city of Montreal will designate the block as a “sector of exceptional value.”
“What I would have really wanted is a heritage classification for the whole of Chinatown,” Riopel said, “just like Old Montreal and Mount Royal.”
“But it’s an excellent start and it’s fantastic that we were able to achieve this in just one year,” said Riopel, who launched an online petition to the Quebec National Assembly in May calling for Chinatown to be designated as a historic district.
May Chiu of Progressive Chinese of Quebec displays a poster calling for the preservation of Montreal’s Chinatown. PHOTO BY JOHN MAHONEY /Montreal Gazette
Chiu also said she hoped Monday’s announcements would be just the start.
“I think that so far the consensus of the community is that it’s an amazing first step and I need to emphasize first because heritage protection is just one of the items in the Chinatown Action Plan,” she said.
Chiu questioned why only one block was receiving protection.
“We’re very happy, but we need to be cautiously going forward with the government to make sure that heritage protection is something that’s going to be considered holistically and not piecemeal,” she said.
Chiu also called for protection of “intangible heritage like the family associations, social organizations and religious organizations that were all part of the very rich fabric of (the area),” she said.
People walk past a home on St-Urbain St. in Montreal’s Chinatown Sunday Jan. 23, 2022. Parts of Chinatown, including this house, will be classified as a heritage district. PHOTO BY JOHN MAHONEY /Montreal Gazette
Montreal’s proposed zoning bylaw will reduce maximum heights for new buildings from 20 storeys to about eight.
Pierre Guillot-Hurtubise, principal vice-president of National public relations and media adviser to Shiller and Kornbluth, said the developers would examine “the exact content of the announcement” before commenting.
Until now, Chinatown has fallen through the cracks when it comes to heritage protection, said Dinu Bumbaru, policy director for Heritage Montreal.
“Hopefully what happens tomorrow will turn the page and open a new chapter for that area,” he said by video chat from Dubai. “Chinatown is very important but it was not duly acknowledged, so this is being corrected.”
Real estate development has increasingly hemmed in the district, one of the first areas outside Old Montreal to develop.
It’s important that it be recognized “properly as a heritage place, not just yet another commercial venue,” he said.
There’s a growing understanding of “the different layers of the heritage of Chinatown, from the Scots, the French, the Jewish people, the Irish of course, the Chinese,” Bumbaru said.
Bounded by Jeanne-Mance St., René-Lévesque Blvd., St-Dominique St. and Viger Ave., the district is the last surviving Chinatown in Quebec. Over the years, it has lost territory to mega projects like the Palais des Congrès and Guy-Favreau Complex, which amputated a third of its territory in the 1970s and ’80s.
Roy and Plante announced the creation of a working group in May to recommend measures to preserve Chinatown
An illustration of Montreal’s “cultural mix,” the district “is also a reflection of our open and welcoming society,” Roy said.
“The result is a unique ensemble in North America of which we are proud and which we must protect and enhance,” she said at the time.
CM Service de l’urbanisme et de la mobilité , Direction de l’urbanisme - 1218155003
Adopter un projet de règlement visant à modifier le Plan d’urbanisme de la Ville de Montréal (04-047) afin de réviser la carte du patrimoine bâti et de revoir les hauteurs et les densités maximales permises pour le secteur du Quartier chinois situé dans l’arrondissement de Ville-Marie / Mandater l’Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) pour assurer la tenue de la consultation publique portant sur le projet de règlement modifiant le Plan d’urbanisme / Adopter un règlement intitulé « Règlement de contrôle intérimaire limitant les hauteurs et les densités dans l’arrondissement de Ville-Marie » / Adopter une résolution de contrôle intérimaire
Et bravo à 
